Rampage Getting Nothing From High Priced Kids

Once again, a team that’s filled with scorers gets one goal in a 2-1 overtime loss to Houston.

Kyle Turris, Mikhail Boedker and Viktor Tikhonov have let down the Rampage all season, and it’s getting tiresome. All three kids are first round picks.

It seems everyone is enabling these guys.

Everyone wants to say nice things about them so as not to hurt their feelings, get them in a funk.

Well here’s a bulletin — they’ve been in a funk ALL SEASON and it’s getting downright silly.

Maybe they aren’t as good as some people thought.

They certainly haven’t shown us here in San Antonio anything more impressive than the Layne Ulmer lack of scoring days.

At least Ulmer went to the locker room after giving some effort.

No matter how much positive spin coach Ray Edwards puts on each mounting loss, the Rampage are going nowhere without these youngsters playing to their perceived potential.

Add them up funseekers — Turris, Boedker and Tikhonov (before he was shipped off to Russia at the end of November) have scored 10 goals all season.

10 goals!

That was a week’s worth in juniors for Turris, where he scored 112 in Burnaby in 110 games. But with the Rampage, the obviously talented first round pick, THIRD overall, has five in 26 games.

Turris has shown some flair on occasion, but mostly, he has coasted through his time in the AHL instead of dominating the league like his resume suggests he should.

At least Turris has contributed some assists (14).

Boedker has been even more invisible, if that is possible.

The pride of Denmark scored his third goal of the season on his 20th birthday in Houston Wednesday night.

It was his first goal since he misfired on a one-timer that threw off the goaltender on Nov. 13 against Chicago. Otherwise, Rampage fans are still patiently waiting for first-round wonderment from him as he skates his shifts like Alex Bourret, another first-round bust of the Atlanta Thrashers, who has taken his one assist in 14 games game to the Czech Republic.

Boedker has added THREE assists in 16 games.

Tikhonov, before packing his bags for the Motherland, scored 2 goals in 16 games. The only contact he encountered at the rink was from his own teammates when he bumped into them on the bench after another nonproductive shift.

Perhaps the Coyotes did these three kids a serious disfavor by keeping them in the show in their teenage years. Sure, Boedker scored 11 goals and Turris and Tikhonov chipped in 8 apiece, but those numbers aren’t going to start paving your way to the hall of fame.

The bottom line is they are giving the Rampage the equivalent of a temper tantrum — “you send me to San Antonio and I’ll sit in my room, hold my breath and not score goals until you take me back to Arizona.”

Throw in second-rounder Brett MacLean, who seems to score in bunches and then disappears for weeks on end, (case in point: 5 goals in three games in October, followed by one goal in 10 games, followed by 4 goals in three games, followed by one goal in five games) and you see why Jeff Hoggan is getting more and more gray hairs this season.

Second bottom line — The Rampage need these high-priced kids to start scoring and throwing a few checks rather than just cashing them.

Factor in the lack of scoring from Chad Kolarik (no goals in six straight) — no goals from Hoggan in five straight — ONE goal by Stefan Meyer in 21 games after scoring 18 in Rochester last year — nothing offensively from Ryan Hollweg, another NHL castoff or rookie Colin Long — Kevin Porter has one goal in five games while going -9 on the plus-minus scale — heck, if it weren’t for the Ducks MacGregor Sharp with a goal and two assists in the five-game losing streak, and newcomers Matt Watkins and Anders Eriksson, the Rampage offense would be completely dead in the water.

It can only get better, right?

Get Ready to Throw Down Friday

Should the Rampage actually score a goal Friday against Grand Rapids, fans can throw new stuffed animals onto the ice. The animals will then be collected and given to needy children for Christmas.

Since San Antonio shooters have scored seven goals in their last five games, fans may be prepared to keep their teddies on their laps until after the game, when, a few years back, they finally got to throw the stuffies after their heroes were shutout.